Time to Remove Satan from the Public Square
In June of 1962 the U.S. Supreme Court in the Engel v. Vitale case ruled:
Because of the prohibition of the First Amendment against the enactment of any law “respecting an establishment of religion,” which is made applicable to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment, state officials may not compose an official state prayer and require that it be recited in the public schools of the State at the beginning of each school day — even if the prayer is denominationally neutral and pupils who wish to do so may remain silent or be excused from the room while the prayer is being recited.
This SCOTUS decision has had far reaching effects leading to: a misinterpretation of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, God being removed from the public square, religious liberty being threatened and the potential for marriage to be redefined. As God was gradually removed from the public square the void was filled by Satan.
It is time to remove Satan from the public square?
Rebecca Bynum believes so. Bynam’s book “The Real Nature of Religion” believes that perhaps it is time to set public standards on religion. Bynum takes on issues such as the soul, science, morals, values, goodness, evil, mortality and immortality in her short but compelling book.
Bynum notes, “Certainly it is a symptom of the decline of [Western] civilization that our [secular] culture is not providing people a reason to go on living, let alone a reason to cultivate our inner lives [soul] in hope that something real will live on in a future existence [life everlasting].” Bynum writes, “Moral feelings goes all the way down to the essence of what it is to be human.”
Satan takes away the “essence of what it is to be human.”
In Chapter 7: Religion and the Law Bynum asks: How should religion be defined? Bynum writes, “The time has come to robustly and honestly discuss and define the real nature of religion. All Americans must certainly admit the necessity of allowing only those religions (both new and old traditions) which are beneficial to our society to grow and flourish. Those harmful to our social unity should not be given free reign to grow in influence and power, for the day of reckoning will surely come.”
Bynum believes, “Defining true religions for First Amendment protection could be easily done in neutral language and religions and religious sects could be subject to a simple test.” Bynum’s simple test consists of five questions:
- Is love, the progressive experience of God, encouraged?
- Are the fruits of the spirit, (truthfulness, joy, peace, loyalty, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance) encouraged?
- Is loving service to humanity, without prejudice, encouraged?
- Are hatred, selfishness, intolerance, intemperance, deceit and violence discouraged?
- Is violent coercion employed?
Bynum believes by using this simple test U.S. Courts “[W]ould not be required to prove or disprove the validity of any set of religious beliefs [see U.S. v. Ballard, 322 U.S. 78 (1943)] but it can set standards on what true religion should do for mankind and judge the fitness of different religions to come under the protection of the First Amendment…”
Bynum notes, “Just as early scientists argued that doctrine cannot deny experience (specifically, observation and experiment), neither should a scientific materialistic doctrine [liberalism, socialism] deny the plain fact of the everyday human experience of the non-material-specifically mind and soul.”
Who will lead the fight in the battle to deny Satan the public square?
The leaderhip must come from the pulpit. From the Pastors, Ministers, Priests, Bishops, the Pope and Rabbis and from those who “seek God and forsake self.”
As Bynum notes, “Religious liberty is at the heart of freedom. Men either choose to seek God and forsake self, or they choose to forsake God and elevate self. This is the very essence of freedom. No one can force another to love. Conformity is no antidote to sin and forcing conformity is a sin in itself.”
Jesus said, “Think not that I come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10:34
His sword is Truth!
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